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Thursday, August 28, 2014

My sister gifted me a 1950s spaghetti poodle pulling a
little cart. After deciding that she is too fancy to join my other novelty
planters in the backyard, I knew felt flowers would be the perfect bouquet for
her little cart. I had just finished putting together felt brooches for my
family and still had not only the felt flower bug, but plenty of felt to work
with. I’ve been trying my hardest to use what craft supplies I have at home
before purchasing new supplies, but I was out of black felt so I found myself
also bringing home a beautiful red coral and light peach felt.

In the floral section, I found green wood sticks that were
the perfect height for the flowers. I was going to use wood kabobs, but the
floral sticks saved me the time of cutting them down to the right size and
painting them green, plus they were inexpensive. Armed with my felt, wood stems
and glue gun, I was ready to get crafting. I just had to figure out how to make
some buds.

Monday, August 25, 2014

A couple of weekends ago I met up with my neighbors for a
neighborhood trash pick-up. The trash pickup was the launch of Green BirdsAnaheim – the first in the United States. Green Bird was started in 2003 by a
group of young people in Tokyo, Japan. Their goal? “To clean the towns we live
in and love” through their message that “littering is ugly and uncool.” Green
Bird arrived in Anaheim through the continued dedication of trying to make
their neighborhood a better place to live. My friends Kevin and Jody, the
driving force behind Green Bird Anaheim, had visited Tokyo and not only noticed
how clean the streets were, but also a Green Bird team picking up trash along
the streets. Once back in the states they reached out to Green Bird, so that
Anaheim too could promote that a clean city, starts with a little community and
a whole lot of city pride.

There were about 45 neighbors decked out in our green jerseys
with the official Green Bird logo, orange gloves, bags and trash picking tongs
all sent over from Japanese headquarters – how cool is that? We set off in
smaller groups in different directions to conquer the litter in the streets of
Downtown Anaheim. My group set off East, then North along Broadway and Anaheim
Blvd. Like other groups we came across tons of cigarette butts and potato chip
bags. I picked up quite a bit of paper from the gutters that was blocking water
drainage.

Photo courtesy of green bird Anaheim

At the end of our 2 hour cleanup we compared the most interesting things we found. I think our group took the cake with having found a pair of high heels and beer bottles in some bushes. My personal most interesting find? A can of vegetable soup that had been left in a bush so long ago that the bush started to grow around it. On our walk some of us spoke with community members that were interested in why we were spending our Saturday morning picking up trash. We heard compliments of "good job" to people questioning if we were serving community service hours because we had done something wrong. Isn't it a sad state when picking up trash is seen as punishment instead of helping your community?

Aside from stories of our encounters, we also had a mountain of
trash which we displayed at the Anaheim Vegan Faire. We wanted to make a
statement of how much litter there was in our streets, but also how much trash
a small group of people was able to pick up in 2 hours. Was that pile of trash
uncool? Yes. Did it make a point? Totally.

I believe that where there is litter, there is an excess of
household waste. If we reduce the amount of trash in our homes, there will be
less trash to become litter. The post World War II consumerism culture that
remains today has perpetuated the trash problem that exists today. Take for
example this clip from Mad Men where a family picnic shows littering as
acceptable.

As I challenge myself to find new ways to reduce waste in
my home, I invite you as well to challenge consumerism and waste. If you are
just starting out on your waste less journey, join the Beginner’s Challenge, or
if you have been going green for a while, join me in the Green Challenge. Every
week I’ll post about that week’s challenge, so feel free to comment on the blog
or use #WasteLessChallenge on Facebook and Instagram.